Honor Bound
by FogOnTheBeach
Summary: After the death of her sister, Princess Yue, Princess Rei Lin is roped into marrying the prince of the Fire Nation in order to acquire a non-aggression pact between their two peoples. Banished Prince Zuko is offered a way home in marrying and producing an heir with the younger princess of the Northern Water Tribe.
1. Getting the News

**A/N- I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor any of the characters. This fic is written purely for the shits and giggles of it's author, Fog. This is my first published fanfiction, but it's something I've been ruminating on for a while, so I am very excited about it. Reviews are always appreciated. I will attempt to make updates as often as possible.**

The counsel-room had been locked for five hours past the time the meeting was expected to conclude. The Northern Water Tribe's remaining young princess, Rei Lin and a noblewoman were the only inhabitants of the hall outside the counsel-room. Every other inhabitant of the castle had gone out of their way to avoid the area. It seemed everyone knew the truth about what was being discussed in that room except the princess, herself, who was pacing furiously outside the door. The knowledge that one's future was being discussed without one's consent was... disquieting.

The pace of Rei's steps picked up with every passing moment. Her chin raised high in a forced sort of confidence and superiority. Maru, her oldest and closest friend sat on a bench opposite her, transferring between examining Rei and her nails. Maru, had noticed, as had everyone else, that her friend had been unusually distant over the past few weeks. Of course, losing her sister, several good friends, and half of her city's population would have an effect on anyone. It wasn't really surprising, but it was, admittedly a bit was Rei Lin... she had always been the the positive one. Rei was the positive one and Yue was the positive, beautiful, and strong one. Maru was one of the few people that paid Rei much attention when compared to her sister, but even she would have preferred the friendship of the elder princess. Still, when one wanted to be friends with a princess, one took what she could get.

Maru valued Rei's friendship, of course, but she was no Yue. She never did have her sister's intelligence, beauty, grace, or natural talent for what seemed like everything. Nor was she actually a moon spirit. Rei though, never complained of her obvious inferiority to her anyone looking on, the younger princess seemed entirely comfortable in her own imperfect skin. But now that her superior was gone, Rei was acting to everyone as if something was crawling under her skin, and no one could explain it. The change was subtle, but enough to thoroughly bother everyone that was used to her usual friendly and optimistic demeanor.

"Rei, please, stop pacing. You're making me dizzy." Maru complained, throwing her head back. Rei's eyebrows shot up, but she complied. She took a deep breath and tried to find a spot on the wall on which to focus her eyes. "You're nervous."

"Nervous? Hardly." She said with a bright smile and a laugh. She despised people that tried to psycho-analyze her.

"I don't blame you. I was nervous too when my parents arranged my marriage."

"Oh Maru, were you really? You should have come to me. Well, you're certainly lucky you were married to Jiang Li. He's wonderful." Maru looked at her for a moment, then smiled bashfully and went off onto a rambling display of her adoration of him.

Rei smiled proudly. If she had learned anything over nearly sixteen years of living with royalty, it was that the best way to change an uncomfortable topic, was to turn it to a subject regarding the other person. People loved nothing more than talking about themselves, and if the chance arose would gladly seize the opportunity. Was it manipulative? Maybe- but the wonderful part of being an expert in manipulation was that no one knew it. Rei grinned and nodded politely as Maru went on and on about her new husband and how she had really truly grown to care about him. This gave her a chance to think.

After Yue's death- no, she wasn't supposed to call it that- after her Great Sacrifice- talk of marrying off the younger royal daughter had begun. Rei was to turn sixteen in a week, at which point, most women began became marriageable. There was something different about this engagement though, something that caused a good deal of frustration and haste for her father. Even Yue's war-time marriage hadn't been rushed quite so much, but it seemed everyone in a position to think so was just biding time until they could sell her to some wealthy nobleman.

Rei and analyzed the situation from top to bottom. There was no immediate need, as far as she knew, for her to be wed. The only conclusion she could come to about the rush was that her father had been convinced that a royal wedding would raise spirits among his subjects after the slaughter of their people. Politics. _Lovely._

It wasn't that Rei was ever really opposed to getting married. She, like any other girl, had fantasized about it any number of times. If Rei was to go in detail with regard to what she must have been feeling, she was more... anxious than nervous. Yes, anxious was an acceptable word. She was not used to being the center of attention in anyway. In fact, Rei had gone out of her way for the past sixteen years to stay out of the spot light, in hopes that her distinctly "less-than-Yue" traits would not be featured too prominently. It seemed now though, that she had little choice in the matter.

As Maru's speech came to an end, luckily a new distraction presented itself. The door to the meeting room opened. Her father, followed by a number of counsel members stepped out into the hall.

"Father...?" Rei asked. The tall, older man walked quickly past her, as if he hadn't seen her at all. From behind him, a younger, slender man that she had seen only at counsel meetings approached her.

"Princess Rei Lin, I apologize deeply for the wait."

"It was no trouble at all."

"You will be thrilled to know that your engagement has been fully planned." He said, with a smile Rei recognized the moment she saw it. It was a well formed and practiced fake. She returned it.

"My excitement is beyond words." Rei replied with enough grace and sweetness to raise the dead.

"I'm sure. Your betrothed is a prince- educated, dignified, etc. I am positive that it will be a perfect match."

"A prince?" Rei asked, humoring him. "How fascinating. I didn't know there were any Water Tribe princes left." The councilman simply laughed and shook his head.

"No, Princess, there would be no point in marrying you to a Water Tribe prince."

"I'm not sure I entirely understand you, sir."

"He is the prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne."

Rei didn't move. She would not allow any trace of horror or disgust to appear on her face. She would not think about what the Fire Nation had done to her- what it had taken from her. She would be the epitome of self-sacrifice and love for her country. Only someone trained in detailed understanding of human reactions would have noticed any change in her expression at all. After a long pause, Rei turned to her friend, and said,

"If you will excuse me, Maru, I must have a word with my father. Councilman." She bowed and hurried off down the hall, in the most ladylike fashion possible, leaving Maru staring dumbly at the wall.


	2. Family Conference

**A/N- I don't think I will usually update this quickly, but I'm very pumped about this story at the moment. Who really needs sleep anyway?**

"Father?" Rei called in a near-sing song voice as she swung into the throne room, where her father was sitting looking over some documents.

"We're not talking about this, Rei." The King replied sternly, not looking up from his parchment. Rei raised an eyebrow and smiled gently at him. She slowed down her step in such a way that was meant to calm him down. If Rei was good at anything, it was influencing her father. He was a simple man- she adored him, of course, he was her father after all- but his concerns with with issues of war and recourses. He wasn't an intellectual like Rei was.

"What do you think I came to talk to you about?" She asked, with the best impression of innocence in the city. Even her father couldn't see through it.

"I'm sorry, Rei. I shouldn't snap. Everything feels like it's been coming down around my head recently. Rebuilding the losses, financing reconstruction, the controversy about the funeral." Her father's face was held in his hands before he could finish his sentence. Rei's sympathy levels for the man sitting in front of her were significantly lower than usual, but the funeral controversy was something that she could relate to. The people were upset that Yue's funeral had gone beyond that of a princess and had treated her as a martyr of extreme holiness, when hundreds had died in the battle with the Fire Nation. There were still protests at least once a week outside the place where Yue's memorial was being built. That was a problem as well. The subjects seemed to think the tribe's money and recourses could be better spent rebuilding hospitals, libraries, and homes than on a tribute to it's deceased princess.

"I'm so sorry, Father. Is there anything I can do to help?" The concern was no more genuine than her interaction with the councilman had been. It wasn't that Rei didn't think the world of her father, it was that at the moment, she was beginning to wonder if he was worthy of that praise.

"No, Love. Everything will work out the way it's intended. It always does." Rei's sad smile was so convincing that it woke her father out of his stupor and reminded him of his daughter's plight. "Now, what did you come to talk to me about?"

"I wanted to express my enthusiasm and gratitude with regard to my wedding. I'm sure such an arrangement was difficult to attain."

"You're not... upset?"

"Of course not. We all have to make sacrifices for our nation, especially in times like these. However, I've been volunteering down in town at the soup kitchen and I'm afraid my presence has brought a good deal of donations. Now I'm sure they would do just fine without me, but..."

"Rei, why didn't you tell me you were volunteering in the city? Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?"

"I didn't want to worry you, Father, but I felt it was the sort of thing Yue would want me to do." Rei did feel a twinge of guilt at using her sister's name for such a lie. Rei had never done volunteer work in her life, and certainly not in a soup kitchen, but it was just the sort of lie that might tug on her father's heart strings enough to make him call off the whole engagement.

"Oh, Rei." He stood up and wrapped his arms around her. "What will become of us?"

"We'll be just fine, Father. As always." Rei insisted, repressing the inner voice that insisted _'Maybe you'll be alright, but I'm being sold to scum from the nation that murdered my sister.'_

Her father pulled away, held her at arms distance and smiled back at his daughter, who, he seemed to notice for the first time, was becoming a woman. He returned, somewhat more relaxed to his throne.

"Anyway, Father, my point is, if it would possible for this wedding to be _postponed_...," she emphasized the word so as not to make him think she was asking for the wedding to be called off- that would just make him angry- but simply to be pushed back a bit so she would have time to change his mind.

"Rei."

"...Until the soup kitchen no longer needs me..."

"Rei."

"That way, everyone will be happy and..."

"Rei, there is no way to postpone the wedding. A deal has been made that if a child from each my family and and Fire Lord Oazi's marry and produce and heir, there will be an opportunity for a non-aggression pact between the Fire Nation and us." There were tears in his eyes. _So that's it_, Rei thought, _I'm a pawn in a war strategy._ That thought should not have disturbed the young princess so much. As the last remaining daughter to the king, it was her duty to sacrifice herself for the good of her nation. That was something she had been taught since she was a little girl, but Rei was so much better than that.

Never once had anyone recognized just how brilliant she really was, Rei's mind cried out. Rei could think circles around any one of her father's councilmen. If given the opportunity, she was positive she could solve the financial crisis, the protests, and the entire war in less time than it would take her father to hold a meeting. And here she was being treated like she could do nothing more than marry into a treaty. Inside Rei's head were answers to questions the people there hadn't even thought to ask yet- she was sure of it.

No expression of pain or betrayal or frustration materialized on her face, though. Rei Lin was the same optimist, loyal daughter as always. She wasn't ready to give up on the subject, but for the moment, it seemed to the only logical course of action was to put it away for another day.

"When is the wedding to be held?"

"Next month."

_"Next month?"_ Rei repeated with an air of indignation. A slight slip up- but nothing that couldn't be played down. "I'll have a good deal to prepare for."

"I'm sure you'll figure everything out." Her father finished, doing his best to hide that he was still tearing up. "Now, if you don't mind, Rei, I have some business to finish up. I'll see you for dinner?"

"Of course." Rei said. She reluctantly exited the throne room back into the hall. She didn't bother to go back for Maru, who would eventually realize that she was on her own for the rest of the day. Instead, she retired to her bedroom, where she could escape for a little while into a book.

-

Zuko's uncle had somehow managed to charm their way into an inn on the first island that they washed up on, despite their both being entirely penniless. The ever-more-uncomfortable young man excused himself into the waiting room, as his uncle all but flirted with the woman who owned the inn. How he did it, Zuko would never know, but the inn keeper insisted that the two of them stay as long as they like.

There was a seed of worry growing in Zuko's mind that he might have to remind his uncle that just because they lost their ship did not mean they didn't still have the same mission they'd always had. But after what had happened in the Northern Water Tribe, even Zuko was ready for a day or two's rest before beginning to strategize about how to find a new ship and get back on the Avatar's track. Still, a part of him knew that the whole 'vacation' as his uncle insisted on calling it, would be spent trying to remind said uncle that this was not a permanent change in pace.

Things never went as well as planned in that department.

On the fifth day in the inn, Zuko's uncle was preoccupying himself with examining a display of shells in one of the huts near the beach. They had already stayed days past when Zuko had planned on leaving, and now his uncle was planning on bring souvenirs with them, which would only slow them down more.

"We don't need any more useless things! You forget, we have to carry everything ourselves now!" His uncle seemed like he was about to respond with a proverb or something of that sort when he was cut off by a voice from across the room that neither of them had noticed.

"Hello, brother. Uncle."


	3. Going Home

**A/N- This chapter may be a tad rushed, but I spent it looking forward to writing the wedding scene. **

"What are you doing here?" The sight of his sister brought Zuko to his feet. In three years, Zuko hadn't heard from Azula once. If she had come to boast or rub his nose in his defeats, why now?

Even from across the room- she smelled like home.

"In my country, we exchange a pleasant 'hello' before asking questions." Within seconds she was standing in front of Zuko, staring him down. Zuko raised himself up to full height. She was nearly the same height as him- but more because Azula was tall than because he was not, though he never saw it that way. Most people that met the royal family, had assumed Azula was the older sibling merely from the way she held herself when Zuko was around, as if she was already queen. "Have you become uncivilized so soon, Zuzu?"

"Don't call me that!"

"To what do we owe this honor?" Their uncle interrupted before a fight could break out between the siblings.

"Hmm... must be a family trait. Both of you so quick to get to the point." Azula had taken one of the shells between her dangerous fingernails and, squeezing them together, shattered it. At that point her expression changed from taunting to something closer to embarrassment- something he'd never seen from her before. "Father... has decided," She nearly spat out the words, "that the entire nation would benefit from your returning home and helping him fulfill a treaty."

Zuko's breath caught in his throat. The words were quickly distorting themselves into 'Father loves you and regrets everything', until Zuko couldn't even remember what the original sentence had been. Everything was spinning through his mind so wild and recklessly that Zuko was unable to process anything. He turned to look out the window.

His father wanted him back... Zuko felt like he was coming face to face with a monster he had only seen in dreams. It didn't make sense and it shouldn't be real. But he had heard it- Azula had said it. The part of Zuko that so desperately wanted it to be true, drowned out any thought that his sister may be lying. All those years of traveling and fighting suddenly meant nothing at all if his father wanted him back. This was that moment that everything in his life would change- he knew it. He would look back on this moment forever, and know that everything was complete.

-

When Zuko stepped into his bedroom in the palace, it felt as if he had never left. The room was exactly the same as it had been all those years ago, as if his father had always been waiting to welcome him back. He smiled at the bed, and let himself collapse onto it. He stared for a long time at the Fire Nation emblem on his ceiling, rays of sunlight streaming in through the window over looking the garden and warming his skin. He had spoken to his father, who had welcomed him back as one would a war hero. Returning to the city reminded Zuko just how much he had missed its flowers that grew no where else in the world, its perfect temperature, the uniquely elegant architecture. Zuko was quite certain that he would never leave that spot.

Only a moment later, of course, he heard his uncle's voice from outside the door. The old man had been suspicious from the moment Azula brought up the offer, but it seemed he had been proven wrong.

"Prince Zuko?"

"Come in." His uncle opened the door, carrying a handful of pastries, and an enormous grin spread over his face. He seemed to be more than happy to have been proven wrong- if only because it made his nephew happy.

"Nephew, if you come with me to the kitchen you can help taste what they're preparing for the wedding." He said with eyes wide.

Zuko flinched- he had been trying not to give much thought to the condition of his return that Azula had told him. If he didn't produce an heir within two years with this woman that was to be his wife, the arrangement was called off and he would once again provided with a ship and sent on his way. Azula had emphasized this to no end, but Zuko convinced himself that didn't mean his father didn't genuinely want him back.

He sat up in bed lifted a hand to his forehead. He didn't know anything about this woman other than that she was the princess of the Northern Water Tribe. He hadn't even been aware that there was more than one- the one that became the moon spirit during the siege. As a child, Zuko had always assumed that his marriage would be arranged, but after he had left home he gave up all thoughts on those matters- on all matters other than finding the Avatar.

"There's no need to be nervous, nephew, I'm sure she's a lovely young lady."

-

_It's too hot here. Where is the snow? The buildings are so boring. I want to go home._ Rei Lin repeated over and over in her mind. Her ship pulled into the harbor in front of the palace, and she was quite ready to insist that the captain turn it around that instant.


End file.
